


The Sunny Cafe

by kittyfox77



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Best Friends, Cute, Family Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23941501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyfox77/pseuds/kittyfox77
Summary: Ace works at the Sunny Café with his brothers, Sabo and Luffy, while also studying his ass off in his first semester of college. His roommate, Marco, really helps him out, and likes coming to the café for a good cup of coffee. Unfortunately for Marco, Sabo has been giving him a hard time lately, and he's about to find out the real reason why.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Sabo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	The Sunny Cafe

“Ace, you’re going to be late.”

A loud snore is the obnoxious, albeit predictable, response. Marco knows better than to shout. He leans over his roommate's bed, grabs him by the shoulders, and shakes as hard as he can. Ace’s head bobbing around would be funnier if this wasn’t a daily occurence.

“Wha...why’s there an earthquake?” Ace slurs as he blearily opens his eyes.

“Get up if you want to actually make it to class today.” Marco releases his best friend, sighing as he does so. “I’m not waiting for you so I can be late again.” With his duty as a friend accomplished, he leaves their tiny, shared room. Just after the door shuts, he pops his head back in, “And remember to lock the damn door this time!”

Ace surprisingly makes it to class. He’s 10 minutes late, but he makes it nonetheless. Due to Ace’s condition, he made sure to only pick classes with professors that didn’t grade for attendance. He could have just gotten out of it with a doctor’s note, but when Marco had asked about that…

“No doctors!” Ace shouted vehemently, slamming his beer down and causing it to splash over the counter. The pretty bartender, Makino (was that her name?) gave Ace a dirty look, but he was too drunk to notice.

“So what are you going to do when you inevitably get hurt?” Marco asked, sipping his beer much more calmly. The two had been at Bink’s Sake, the most popular college bar in town. The place surprisingly sold a lot of beer, despite the name.

“I can patch myself up fine,” he paused and looked away. Marco wondered if his friend had lost his train of thought before he continued quietly, “Besides, I can always call for Sabo. He’s gotten me through when I couldn’t manage.”

“And what happens when you get sick? Or you and Sabo are in over your heads?” Marco pressed.

“It’s never happened before. You worry too much!” Ace clapped him on the shoulder and laughed.

“What if...I was your doctor?” Marco asked. Ace cocked his head at this.

“You wanna be a doctor? I thought you hadn’t declared a major either.”

“Well, I was looking for some direction. Making sure my friend doesn’t die from his own stupidity seems like a pretty good one,” Marco said. Ace’s expression darkened as his usual jovial nature fell away.

“You’re gonna be a doctor just to look after my sorry ass? Seems like a weird choice.”

“I could be Sabo and Luffy’s doctor too, you know.” Marco grinned. He knew Ace wouldn’t be able to say no to that. As if on cue, Ace smiled slightly.

“Those stupid asses really could use a good doctor.”

So it was settled. Marco would be going to medical school, if he could manage to get through his prereqs.

…

“You saved me a seat!” Ace whispers, gliding into the open chair next to Marco with such ease it was as if he meant to show up late.

“It happened to stay vacant.” Marco barely spares him a glance, opting to focus on the lecture at hand.

“You’re the best friend a guy could ask for.” Marco can’t ignore the wide smile his friend beams at him as he starts copying Marco’s notes.

“You’re welcome, you little shit.”

Marco goes back to listening to their professor talk about basic biology. He can’t say the class is particularly riveting, which is probably why his attention is so easily distracted by the small thump he hears beside him. Looking up from his notes, he finds his roommate face down, sound asleep on the table in front of him. While hard to tell, he would say it was a narcoleptic episode from the fact that Ace’s pen is still poised over his paper. He might seem like an airhead, but part of what drew Marco to becoming Ace’s friend was his tenacity.

Marco considers waking the idiot beside him, but thinks better of it. He could use the sleep, and Marco doesn’t mind lending Ace these notes.

…

“Ace! Ace you’re going to be late for work.” For the second time today, Marco is shaking his roommate awake. Twice in a day is nowhere near the record- it’s something more like twelve?

Ace mumbles something incoherent and finally lifts his head from where he’s hunched over on the table. Marco isn’t a doctor yet, but he can’t imagine that’s good for his neck or back. Languidly, Ace checks the time; it takes him a moment to register what he sees, but once he does he jumps up in a panic.

“Shit, I’m gonna be late!” Without another word, he throws his backpack over his shoulder and sprints out of the lecture hall.

“I told you,” Marco laughs, walking calmly after him.

...

An hour later, Marco leisurely makes his way into the Sunny Cafe.

“Marco!” he hears the shout before he even sees the little devil.

“Polo!” he calls back, bracing himself for the inevitable crash. Luffy barrels into him full speed, wrapping his arms around him in what feels like an impossibly large hug for such a wiry kid. It’s like his arms grow longer when he hugs people, honestly.

“I found you!” Luffy beams up at him.

“Luffy, I was here two days ago, you can’t have missed me that much.”

“Hmph, well maybe I didn’t!” Luffy pulls away and pouts.

“Luffy, get your ass over here! I need your help, damnit!” Ace shouts, his hands completely full with customer orders. “You said you wanted to work, now get to work!”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Luffy races over to help. “Actually, I wanna be the captain!”

Marco rolls his eyes and ignores the ensuing argument between the two brothers, opting to take a seat at the bar. It isn’t long before Sabo takes notice of him and comes over.

“What can I get for you?” Sabo gives his best customer service smile, always the calm within the storm that is the Sunny Cafe. It’s like he doesn’t even notice his shouting brothers in the background. Surprisingly, most people come here for the atmosphere- that atmosphere being three crazy boys attempting to help run a cafe. Marco isn’t naive enough not to notice that this cafe is particularly popular with girls.

“The house lunch special, please.”

Sabo raises an eyebrow at this, “ _and no coffee?_ ” his expression asks.

“And a large coffee.”

“The usual,” Sabo says. It isn’t a question. Marco just sighs and nods. He feels like he started his caffeine addiction a bit early in his medical career, but giving it up now just seems silly with all the work ahead of him.

Marco watches Sabo move on to other customers. Despite Ace being his best friend, Marco and Sabo have a...cool relationship, at best. He and Luffy hit it off right away, but Sabo is obviously wary of others outside his immediate family. Ace is completely oblivious to this, and Marco has too much decorum to say anything to him. As such, he and Sabo are at a stalemate. Sabo doesn’t like him but Ace likes him too much for him to do anything about it, and Marco can’t well say Sabo doesn’t like him without making Ace either mad or sad.

Marco pulls out his textbook and gets to studying. No use thinking about something he has no control over. It only feels like a moment before Sabo reappears before him, coffee in hand.

“Don’t burn yourself. It’s hot.” Marco can’t even begin to tell what emotion Sabo put behind that comment, so he takes it at face value. The coffee, when he finally gets to it, is phenomenal, as always.

Marco takes a study break to sip his coffee and look around the cafe. While it may be popular with the ladies thanks to a certain trio of brothers, there are a lot of people from town that come for the amazing coffee.

Ace and Luffy are continuing to bicker as they bring out orders, Ace somehow able to move with a practiced ease despite his little brother constantly getting in his way. Luffy is trying his best, but he’s a high school kid at his first job- easily distracted and constantly tripping over himself. Ace spends more time cleaning up Luffy’s messes than Luffy does working.

“Your order.” Sabo interrupts his thoughts, his smile icy. Marco can’t help but wonder when Sabo will finally stop scrutinizing him. He keeps sitting at the bar in hopes that one day he can break the ice, but clearly not today.

“Thanks, Sabo. You’re a good brother, you know.” This causes them both to freeze. Why the hell did he say that? He _was_ drinking coffee, right? Not booze?

Sabo, on his part, just stares at Marco in shock. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment until he suddenly bursts out laughing. He laughs loudly enough to draw the attention of his rowdy brothers.

“What’s so funny?” Ace calls as he picks up another order. Luffy clamors that he also wants to know.

“Nothing, nothing!” Sabo waves him off. He turns back to Marco, a genuine smile still on his lips. “I didn’t take you for a suck up.” Before Marco can argue in his defense, he continues, “I think you need another coffee. On the house.”

Marco fights down his embarrassment and starts eating his lunch. Not much else he can do. What the hell was he thinking, saying something so weird? It feels like too short a time before Sabo comes back, nothing separating them but a small countertop. Marco has half a mind to crawl underneath it.

“Maybe next time, we can get coffee together.” Sabo smirks, moving on to other customers so quickly that Marco never gets the chance to respond. Marco stares at the cup, stunned into silence. Didn’t Sabo...hate him?

….

Ace and Marco sit in their dorm, working on homework. Marco doesn’t know how to bring this up. He isn’t even sure he _wants_ to, but he has to know.

“Ace, Sabo...asked me out today. I think,” Marco finally admits.

“Oh finally!” Ace throws his textbook to the side. “Geez, he hasn’t stopped talking about you for months.”

“...what?!” Marco had barely been focusing before, but now his work is completely forgotten.

“Oh yeah, he’s had the hots for you since you two met.”

“But...but he…”

“Dude, he had your coffee order memorized from day one. He’s never done that so fast for anybody.” Ace pauses. “You seem surprised. I mean, I guess it makes sense, Sabo doesn’t know how to flirt to save his life.”

Marco suddenly recalls the warning from earlier, _“Don’t burn yourself. It’s hot.”_

Was that Sabo trying to flirt with him?

He had seriously misread this relationship, hadn’t he?

“So...you’re gonna date my brother?” Ace asks innocently.

“I uh, well… I hadn’t really thought about it before.” Marco thought himself as someone who was not usually at a loss for words, but this situation was a bit overwhelming.

“I mean, I’m all for it. After all, I’ve had to watch Sabo drool over you since the start of the semester. I’m impressed he actually made a move.” Marco wasn’t quite sure how to react to that.

“He did that?” Marco found himself asking. Sabo doesn’t really seem the type to drool over anyone or anything.

“Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. He’ll probably kick my ass later.” Ace shrugs nonchalantly. “How did you get him to make a move anyway?” Marco blushes at the memory. Ugh, he’s still so embarrassed.

“I, uh, told him he was a good brother,” Marco admitted. Ace burst out laughing at this.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

“I don’t know! I was just thinking about you and Luffy and it just came out.”

“Love makes you say weird stuff, huh? Who knew you’d turn into such a sap!” Ace keeps laughing.

“No kidding,” Marco sighs. He and Ace pause, Ace’s eyes going wide. Suddenly, Ace jumps up and points at Marco.

“Did you just admit that you’re in love with my brother?”

“We haven’t even had coffee yet!” Marco knows that isn’t the best argument, but his head is spinning.

“So you _could_ love him,” Ace teases, sitting back down on the edge of his bed. Marco is trying to find more solid ground in this conversation.

“Ace, you are talking to your best friend about dating your brother, isn’t that weird to you?”

“Nah, have you met us? We’re all a bunch of weirdos. You’ll fit right in. Besides, that’ll just make you the family doctor in a whole different sense.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Marco sighs again.

“You’re an insufferable idiot, you know that?”

“Yeah, but I’m the insufferable idiot who’s also your best friend. What would you do without me?”

“Get a lot more school work done?”

“Well, there is that,” Ace agrees.

The roommates laugh and eventually get back to their schoolwork. Talks of coffee and brothers would have to wait for another day.

**Author's Note:**

> So, fun fact, this ship has never even occurred to me before. I don't even know if I ship it?? But it just happened this way man. These boys have minds of their own. So here we are! Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment! They make my day and make me actually want to continue writing for you guys. 
> 
> Also, holy crap summaries are hard! Any critiques on that? Was it good, bad, too misleading? Thanks!!


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